Philippe-Antoine Merlin de Douai

Philippe-Antoine Merlin de Douai (30 October 1754-26 December 1838) was a member of the French Directory during the French Revolution. A royalist, he was overthrown in the Coup of 30 Prairial VII in 1799.

Biography
Philippe-Antoine Merlin de Douai was born in Arleux, France on 30 October 1754, and he was called to the Flemish bar association in 1775. In 1782, he became a royal secretary at the chancellery of the Flanders parlement, and he became a member of Louis Philippe II of Orleans' privy council. In 1789, he was elected to the Estates-General as a representative from the Third Estate in Douai, and he pushed for the abolition of primogeniture and equal shares of inheritances for both men and women. He was a member of the Mountain faction of the Jacobin Club for years, supporting the execution of Louis XVI of France and the implementation of the Law of Suspects. However, he became President of the National Convention after the National Convention and supported actions taken against the Jacobins. He supported a code that abolished confiscation, branding, and life imprisonment, and he became Minister of Justice of the French First Republic in 1795. In 1799, he was blamed for several of the government's failures, and he was accused of being a royalist; Emmanuel Joseph Sieyes had him overthrown in the Coup of 30 Prairial VII. He became a Count of the First French Empire and was banished under the Bourbon Restoration, and he died in Paris in 1838 after the July Monarchy allowed for him to return home.